


Flame

by neversaydie



Category: The Penumbra Podcast
Genre: Complicated Relationships, Drinking, M/M, Making Out, October Prompt Challenge, Sexual Tension, Smoking, Teasing, juno knows it too, peter has juno wrapped around his little finger and he knows it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-02
Updated: 2019-10-02
Packaged: 2020-11-15 06:47:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,116
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20861975
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neversaydie/pseuds/neversaydie
Summary: There's something about the way Peter lights a cigarette.With his face half tucked into the scarf haphazardly wrapped around his neck against the chill, he could be mistaken for glaring at his companion as Nureyev lights a smoke. Peter has pretensions, to put it mildly, but Juno doesn't mind them because he has plenty of his own. Old school cigarettes, old fashioned tobacco from god knows where, a lighter which actually produces a flame that highlights the hollows of his cheekbones as he inhales - it's not that it bothers Juno as much as it distracts him.Many things about Peter do, he won't pretend otherwise, but this is... particularly engaging.[in which Peter knows exactly what he's doing and Juno is grumpy about it.]





	Flame

There's something about the way Peter lights a cigarette. 

Seasons on Mars are erratic due to the planet's orbit and then tempered by the recycled atmosphere, so it's been a long time since Juno remembers feeling this cold. The winter he finally accepted that fate wasn't going to treat him well and he put away his never worn wedding dress, maybe. Or perhaps just last year, sometimes it gets hard to tell one shitty trip around the sun from the next. 

With his face half tucked into the scarf haphazardly wrapped around his neck against the chill, he could be mistaken for glaring at his companion as Nureyev lights a smoke. Peter has pretensions, to put it mildly, but Juno doesn't mind them because he has plenty of his own. Old school cigarettes, old fashioned tobacco from god knows where, a lighter which actually produces a flame that highlights the hollows of his cheekbones as he inhales - it's not that it bothers Juno as much as it distracts him. Many things about Peter do, he won't pretend otherwise, but this is... particularly engaging. 

The last time Juno watched him do this, he lit the cigarette off the flaming wreckage of the mob car they'd just spent twenty minutes evading. Peter had been far too pleased with himself for that one. 

"Am I bothering you, dear?" His sharp canines glint in the reflected neon of a nearby bar sign, a glimpse of danger behind the manners. Juno wants to ruin him. 

"Why would it bother me? Air's polluted enough already," Juno shrugs and shoves his hands deeper into the pockets of his dark trench coat, the image of a guy with bad luck and worse taste in men. "I told Mick we wouldn't be late."

"And he believed you?" The mild amusement in Peter's voice at the prospect of anyone sincerely believing Juno might be on time gets his hackles up. It always does. Nureyev knows how to play him like a fiddle and Juno can't bring himself to hate it as much as he's sure he should. "Although, the prospect of whiskey does tend to encourage you to keep your appointments."

"Yeah, and the longer I go without any the less likely you are to see tomorrow in one piece."

Juno turns and stalks off in the direction of the Pour and Floor, the bar he and Mick have been frequenting since they were far too young to drink and far too old to give a shit about getting in trouble for it. With the steady breeze of the air filters now at his back, Juno can smell that Peter follows him. Smoke, sure, and also the cologne that had hung around his office for weeks after the first time Nureyev took off into the night like he was never there. Juno wanted to kill him for it, back then, for leaving him with something constantly clawing at his senses as he listened to the next case of a cheating spouse or missing relative. Something constantly reminding him that no matter how good of an investigator he was, there was one man he couldn't catch. 

Something reminding him that he wasn't enough to stick around for, too, but he'd known that for most of his life already. 

"Your secretary asked me to cut you off  _ before _ you finished a bottle, tonight," they've been through enough together since that first abandonment that Juno could almost consider Peter a friend, now, but that doesn't mean he appreciates being told what to do. By a con artist, no less. "She's awfully fond of you."

"You and Rita can both go to hell," they're side by side again by the time they turn a corner, and so Juno's fully aware Peter can see him roll his eyes. "Can't a lady get drunk in peace?"

"With Mick Mercury there, I doubt there'll be much peace involved," for all his airs and graces and his delicate behaviour, Peter is just another scumbag from another scumbag planet who thinks he's something special. His refusal to partake in the muck and grime of working at the bleeding edge of legality irks Juno as much as he respects it, but he draws the line at disparaging the other people in the dirt with them.

"You leave Mick out of it," maybe it's because they just finished a tricky job out on Rex Alpha, or maybe Juno's impulse control is on the fritz again, but he's this close to starting a fight with Peter over nothing more than a judgemental comment. 

It gets like this with Nureyev, sometimes. When Juno doesn't know if he wants to punch him or kiss him and either would do the job. Love bites or bruises would calm the cold caffeine ants of adrenaline running relentlessly just under his skin, rising in goosebumps even through his coat when Peter gives him one of those long, searching sideways looks that feel like he can see right into the broken mess of Juno's brain and somehow make sense of it. He flicks the butt of his cigarette away and stops his... friend, perhaps, with a surprisingly firm grip on his elbow. It makes Juno's pulse pick up, predictable in a way he can't stand. 

"You look tense, Juno," Peter's got that knowing look skirting around the corners of his mouth, not quite a smirk but closer to one than it should be, and Juno swallows hard because he's definitely not making any good decisions tonight. Whiskey is the least of his worries. "Anything I can do to help?"

Son of a bitch. 

Juno moves before he's consciously aware that he's doing it, shoving Nureyev into the nearest alley and into a wall. Peter lets out something akin to a laugh when his back hits stone, and Juno is quick to swallow the sound as he roughly yanks down Peter's collar so he can kiss him. It's rough, all tongues and teeth and pent-up tension, and flame licks through them both until they're panting, gasping for breath and pressed together like they'd wither and die if they were torn apart. 

Peter puts his hand delicately on the small of Juno's back, an almost loving caress. It makes Juno want to bite him.

"I thought you wanted to be on time?" The smugness dripping from Peter's words is infuriating, because he knows he's got Juno right where he wants him. It takes so little to manipulate his detective, and Juno fucking hates that they both know it. 

And that, every single time, he lets it happen like he loves it. 

"Shut up."

"Why don't you shut me up, darling?"

And, like a sucker, Juno does. 

**Author's Note:**

> First work in this fandom, hi!


End file.
